Yves Engler

Writer and Political Activist

Yves Engler has been described as "Canada's version of Noam Chomsky" (Georgia Straight), “one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left today” (Briarpatch), “in the mould of I. F. Stone” (Globe and Mail), "ever-insightful" (rabble.ca) and a "Leftist gadfly" (Ottawa Citizen). His latest book is A Propaganda System: how Canada's government, corporations, media and academia sell war and exploitation

When a plane carrying 239 people disappears and everyone is presumed dead, the world's TV networks devote hours of coverage to the tragedy. There seems a genuine attempt to learn from what happened in order to prevent the same death and destruction from ever occurring again. Contrast that to the reaction of death by automobile. In 2010 1,240,000 people died in vehicle crashes across the globe.

Harper and Kenney's comments certainly play well with those in the Jewish community committed to Israeli/Western imperialism, but they also spur that sentiment. Most people respect power and when leading politicians say a country is involved in a "civilizational conflict" against "a region of darkness" it tends to shape opinion.

Mass unemployment is a waste of people's energy and ingenuity. Imagine what the 1.8 million out-of-work Canadians could accomplish if they were mobilized to develop green energy sources or to expand mass transit and childcare services.

Environmentalists and union activists should be making common cause by explaining how tar sands profits that go to the rich and powerful cost Canadian workers hundreds of thousands of jobs. Expansion of the tar sands and the resulting bouts of Oil Sands fever may be good for capitalists but it will further weaken the job market and do great harm to Canadian workers.

Should the primary purpose of Canadian foreign policy be the promotion of corporate interests?
Canada's business class certainly seems to think so. And with little political or ideological opposition to this naked self-interest, Harper's Conservatives seem only too happy to put the full weight of government behind the promotion of private profits. Recently, the Conservatives announced that "economic diplomacy" will be "the driving force behind the Government of Canada's activities through its international diplomatic network." The release of GMAP is confirmation of the Conservatives' pro-corporate foreign policy.

After the US, Canada has the second highest CEO-to-worker pay ratio. Last year, for instance, the CEO of BCE, George Cope, received $11.1-million in compensation. This staggering sum is nearly 200 times more than what a Bell Canada technician in Toronto makes and 2,000 times the pay of an Indian call-centre worker who responds to Bell customers.

When the media in this country focuses on Haiti, it is typically to highlight Canadian aid projects. Yet, here is one of Haiti's most popular politicians telling the press (and audiences throughout South America) that Canada helped overthrow its elected government and continues to undermine its sovereignty.

Despite a growing human toll and scientific consensus on climate change, the Harper Conservatives have pushed to grow the "carbon bomb." At every turn, Harper's government has blocked progress on setting minimally serious targets for reducing CO2 emissions.

Under CETA Canada will lengthen the time drugs remain under patent, which is expected to drive up already high Canadian pharmaceutical drug costs by more than $850 million a year. Instead of extending Canadian patent laws to more closely reflect Europe's rules, why not harmonize daycare programs to reflect the best of the trading area?

This past week may come to be seen as a watershed moment in the NDP's capitulation to neoliberal capitalism. The nominally social democratic party effectively supported a major corporate trade accord all the while opposing an International Monetary Fund call for a more progressive tax code.

Everyone knows the Conservative government is an unabashed supporter of corporations and foreign investors. They have slashed environmental oversight; attacked labour unions; opened the telecommunications sector up to majority foreign ownership; tripled the financial threshold point where the government must do a "net benefit" test of a foreign corporate takeover. Clearly, big business has gotten almost everything it has wanted from Harper's Conservatives. What should we learn from the fact that it still pushes for more? Perhaps a simple truth about capitalism: There is never enough profit.

In Canada it is illegal to restrict the sale of property to certain ethnic or religious groups but many of our business people and politicians promote an organization that does exactly that in Israel....

Should the "right" of a foreign corporation to make a profit trump governments' attempts to create local jobs, improve environmental regulations or establish laws that raise royalty rates? Most Canadians would say no. But that's what the Conservative government is pushing poor countries to accept if they want Canadian investment.

There are no shades of grey, no nuance or even cause and effect in the simplistic world view proclaimed by the current Canadian government. The Conservatives' response to the horrific attack in Nairob...

John Greyson and Tarek Loubani have had the misfortune of being caught up in a repressive climate. The Conservatives clearly support Egypt's military rulers, which is tied to an extreme pro-Israel outlook. If these two courageous individuals are further harmed, blame the pro-Israel/anti-Egyptian democracy forces in this country.

Harper's Conservatives have a thing for monarchy, the more absolute the better, it seems.
At home they've put up portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and added the moniker "royal" to the Canadian Navy and Air Force while in the Middle East they've strengthened Canada's ties to kingdoms from Morocco to Saudi Arabia.

Somewhere in the Lester B. Pearson Building, Canada's foreign affairs headquarters, must be a meeting room with the inscription "The World Should Do as We Say, Not As We Do" or perhaps "Hypocrites 'R Us." With the Obama administration beating the war drums, Canadian officials are demanding a response to the Syrian regime's alleged use of chemical weapons. The Conservatives signed Canada onto a White House statement claiming: "The international norm against the use of chemical weapons is longstanding and universal." While one may wish this were the case, it's not. In fact, Canada has repeatedly been complicit with the use of chemical weapons.

Conservatives are telling a skeptical public that Canada won't be significantly involved in any military action. Yet, ten days ago the head of the Canadian military met generals from some of the main countries backing Syria's rebels to discuss the prospects of building an international coalition force. In another sign of Canada's deepening involvement in the Syrian conflict the National Post and Ottawa Sun recently reported that Canada has funnelled $5.3-million to the Syrian rebels' propaganda efforts since April of last year.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird's recent mission to Latin America cannot mask Canada's unprecedented diplomatic isolation in the hemisphere. Despite shifting 'aid' to the region and claiming to have made Latin America a priority, Ottawa is increasingly offside with a region breaking free from centuries of Western imperialism.

The Conservatives' militarism is unrelenting. Last month, the Harper government launched a Civil Military Leadership Pilot Initiative at the University of Alberta. The program "allow[s] people to simultaneously obtain a university degree while also gaining leadership experience in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Reserves." The four-year Civil Military Leadership Pilot Initiative will be "co-directed by the University of Alberta and the CAF" and the government hopes to export this "test model" to other universities. The program is an attempt to reestablish the Canadian Officer Training Corps, which was offered at universities from 1912 until 1968.